Anastasia Karandinou

Dr Anastasia Karandinou

Senior Lecture Interior Design

Associate Professor

Department of Architecture & Visual Arts , School Of Architecture, Computing And Engineering

Dr Anastasia Karandinou is a practicing architect (ARB) and an associate professor at the University of East London in the area of architecture and design. She has taught at the University of Portsmouth and at the University of Edinburgh and done research in the areas of architectural design, urbanism, digital media, interactive design, architecture and neuroscience. She represented Greece in the 11th Venice Biennale of Architecture as the main curator of the 'Athens by Sound' pavilion, and her research and design projects have been broadly published. Her recent publications include the books 'No Matter', and 'Data, Architecture and the Experience of Space,' both published by Routledge - Taylor and Francis.

In 2016 she organised and led the international conference Data+Senses in collaboration with ARUP and RIBA. She has set up the design  and research practice 'Counterarchitecture' and lead the international conference 'Repurposing Places for Social and Environmental Resilience' in collaboration with Arup, in London in March 2023. She currently co-leads the research group 'Culture & Environment'; one of the five major research teams of the School, and is Co-I in a funded research project on Off-Site Zero Carbon Customisable buildings, developed in collaboration with Tongji University, China.

She is currently leading the REF UoA13; Architecture, Built Environment and Planning.

Her recent teaching reflects on the political and social dimension of space. Within the MA course she leads, she has led a series of real-life student projects, developed in collaboration with external organisations and local communities.

Qualifications

  • PhD (2011), Architecture, University of Edinburgh. Recipient of the AHRC scholarship, and of the Barry Wilson Memorial Award.
  • PG Cert (2012) Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, University of Portsmouth.
  • Higher Education Academy Fellow (2012)
  • MSc (2006) in Advanced Architectural Design (AAD), University of Edinburgh. International award UIA-Velux ‘Light of Tomorrow' 3rd prize.
  • Diploma - Architect (2005) NTUA (National Technical University of Athens)
  • Registered Architect: TEE (Technical Chamber of Engineers, Greece) (2005). ARB Registered Architect (2013).
  • Architecture Diploma year 4: Technical University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands. 2002-03
Anastasia Karandinou

AWARDS AND GRANTS

  • AHRC award for PhD research on the topic: 'No Matter; Theories and Practices of the Ephemeral in Architecture’. This research project looked into how new digital media change the way in which we perceive, inhabit and design spaces. It also correlated the emergence of new media with the shift towards revisiting the notion of the ephemeral, sensuous, material/immaterial in architecture. 2007.
  • Barry Wilson Memorial Award for PhD research, 2007, University of Edinburgh.
  • UIA (International Union of Architects) Velux awards 'Light of Tomorrow', 2006, 3rd International Prize. For my project 'Invisible bridges'; a research-informed design proposal for the Suzhou river area of Shanghai, 2006.
  • Main curator of the Greek Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, following successful competition entry, 2008. (300K) My project 'Athens by Sound' investigated how new interactive technologies could be used for exploring the issue of atmosphere and mapping the sensuous, sonic, ephemeral, fragmented experiences in the city.
  • Small research grants at the University of Edinburgh and at the University of Portsmouth to support research initiatives and academic publications.
  • Co-I in successful grant application, for the project: 'Modular Design in the UK and China - Towards Zero Carbon Mass Customised Housing', 2021. PI: Dr Arman Hashemi, Co-I: Dr Anastasia Karandinou, Dr Roland Karthaus, Dr Mihaela Ciupala, in collaboration with Dr Simin Tao (Tongji University). 30K via the 'Talent Gateway' at UEL.
  • Co-I in successful grant application, and project leader of the relevant workshop held in Turkey in October 2017: British Council - Newton Researcher Links Workshop Grants: 'Cities in transition: locality, identity and experience of place. Issues for migrant and minority ethnic groups in rapidly emerging urban developments and typologies'. £43.200 (Start date: 3/7/2017) PI (Principal Investigator): Alan Chandler, UEL. Grant number: RLWK6-261661124. Further details can be found on the Dr Karandinou's Orcid page and the British Council website.
  • I led the main design-based research workshop in Ankara, which explored the themes of participatory design, democracy and the use of public space, design as communication, through design-led research projects in collaboration with local NGOs, groups of Syrian refugees, and academics from recently shut down Turkish universities. The participants who attended the workshop was an international group of researchers and architects.

RECENT RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES

  • Directing the International conference 'Repurposing Places for Social and Environmental Resilience', 23-24 March 2023, London. This academic event is co-organised by UEL, Counterarchitecture and Arup.
  • Organised and led the international Conference 'Data and Senses; Architecture, Neuroscience and the Digital worlds'; 23-24 March 2017, London. Supported by RIBA, ARUP, Museum of Architecture, with more than 100 international participants. Two publications followed: Proceedings (UEL publication) and edited book of selected papers (Routledge; Taylor & Francis).
  • Social empowerment through design: The MA course in Interior Design addresses the politics and social dimension of space, through a series of real-life projects and external collaborations.  
  • 'The Storm' interactive stage set design for the Literacy Pirates; Stratford, London, 2019. In 2018-19 I led a collaborative research-informed real-life project between UEL and the Literacy Pirates (former Hackney Pirates), a charity organization that supports children in reading and writing through playful educational after-school workshops, and who asked us to design their new learning environment. Our team explored how the bodily immersion within an interactive environment makes the children more engaged with the learning process, through triggering their creativity, confidence and desire for expression. Our course considers design as a means for cultural and social change; a device that reveals potential and has the power to communicate ideas, empower communities, trigger imagination and participation and potentially transform lives for the better. In the context of this project, the stage set was purposefully designed as an interactive device. The children of the audience are not passive listeners; their body movement makes the stage set come alive. The students received the UEL Civic Engagement Platinum Award for supporting a worthy cause for the local community. Further information: https://frameweb.com/project/the-storm, https://issuu.com/akarandinou/docs/the_storm_literacy_pirates_report, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSnFF04zY5I, Architecture and Design UEL Yearbook 2019 (p.20-23 and 254-269)
  • 'Shed Life' community engagement project, 2021 The UEL MA Interior Design 'Urban Livingroom Studio', which I lead, collaborated with the Thames View Tenants Association and the Humourisk artistic director Susie Miller on the 'Shed Life' project; a community workshop and meeting space, to be built in Barking. Our team designed the interior of the Shed Life, as a space for creation and collaboration between local people of different generations. Our studio considers design as a practice that both pragmatically and metaphorically addresses everyday social and political issues. The aim of this project was to raise awareness on the issue of social exclusion, isolation and loveliness, and to actively empower the local community of Barking by designing this space, with them in the centre of the process. The main activities to be hosted include a wood workshop, space for knowledge and skills exchange for small groups, computing and photography workshops, gallery wall, and tea and coffee making facilities. The interior involves elements that are flexible, removable and can be flat-packed. The users can transform it themselves into a gallery with exhibition walls, into a workshop with shelves and worktop surfaces, or into a more relaxed meeting place for them to share a tea. This project is part of an ongoing research and community engagement project, aiming at battling loneliness and social isolation through designing and creating a place that welcomes collaboration, creation and interaction between locals, and has involved several consultation meetings with the local residents. https://www.dezeen.com/2021/08/08/shed-life-community-workshop-university-east-london-school-show/ https://thelondonpress.uk/2021/08/09/university-of-east-london-students-present-shed-life-community-workshop/
  • Architecture and Neuroscience: This cross-disciplinary project carried out in collaboration with partners from UK Universities and external organisations aimed at developing tools and methods for associating what is happening in one's brain with the physical parameters of the space around them. Each stage of the project comprised of a series of experiments which explore the human experience and wayfinding, with the use of EEG (Electroencephalography).
  • Architecture and Sound (2005-2010): This cross-disciplinary project examined urban and interior environments through the notion of sound. The first round of experiments involved sound recordings and interactive installations in Edinburgh. Collaborators - including Dr Martin Parker and Dr Vangelis Lympouridis - contributed to key-stages of this project. The second round of the project involved sound recordings in Athens and an interactive installation in the Venice Biennale of Architecture (2008). It was implemented by the cross-disciplinary team 'Athens-by-Sound', led by Anastasia Karandinou.
  • Architecture and the Digital World. Through my PhD and follow up research projects, I investigated how the emergence of new digital media affect the way in which we inhabit, perceive and design spaces. The emergence of the new digital media has been correlated with the emergence of conversations on the notion of atmosphere, the sensuous, the sonic, the tactile, the ephemeral and non-easily representable in architecture.

Guest speaker

  • Invited keynote speaker, at the International conference on Creative and Critical Thinking, held in Ankara, Turkey, 9-10 May 2024.
  • Invited participant at the design think-tank 'The Next Space', organised by the Frame magazine, in Eindhoven, Netherlands, 21 October 2021, as part of the Dutch Design Week. [White paper publication]
  • Invited jury - panel member for the public online conversation on the winning projects of the Frame design awards, 6 July 2021.
  • Invited speaker at the School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens symposium 'Remotely.' 26 March 2021
  • Invited speaker at the School of Architecture of the University of Kent, CREAte lecture series, to present my recent work. 14 February 2018. 
  • Invited speaker at the RIBA event on the President's awards for research: Super tall timber & collaborative research. 18 April 2017, London.  Dr Kat Martindale - Head of RIBA Research at the time – invited me to present my recent work.
  • Invited speaker/participant in: 'Mind this Space' workshop, Liverpool. Organised by the Museum of Architecture, Arup, International Festival for business, Liverpool. June 2016.
  • Invited speaker (together with Pippo Ciorra, Odile Decq, John Grindrod and Paul Shepheard) at the Symposium 'Manufacturing Utopia', Manchester School of Architecture, to present my recent academic work and book. 1 May 2014 
  • Invited speaker, International Symposium ‘Multimedia Database as Narrative Mechanism’, organized by the Lab of Environmental Communication and Audiovisual Documentation (LECAD) and the Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly, 12 - 13 April 2013. Invited reviewer in the educational Workshop that followed the Symposium, 18 April 2013. Invited by Professors Zissis Kotionis and Phoebe Giannissi.
  • Invited speaker at the 'Prokalo' seminar series, University of Edinburgh, 27 January 2009. Theme: Sonic mapping of Edinburgh and Athens - a critical juxtaposition.
  • Invited speaker at the TEE (Greek Chambers of Engineers), to present the 'Athens by Sound' project, January 2009, Athens.
  • Invited speaker at the ECA (Edinburgh College of Art), 25 February 2009. Theme: Electronic media and non-visual sensations in Architecture.
  • Invited speaker at the school of Architecture, University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur, Switzerland, 13-14 June 2007. 

External roles

  • Jury member for the prestigious Frame design awards (June 2021).
  • Reviewer for the Footprint Journal (amongst other Journals).
  • Reviewer of the research grant applications for the FWF (Austrian Science Fund).
  • Member of the Program committee of the international conference 'Just Landscape? Diversity, Ethnicity, Representation,' UEL, London, 2019. 
  • Member of the scientific committee of the 'International Conference for Sustainable Design of the Built Environment' (SDBE) 20-21 December 2017, London. 
  • Member of the scientific committee of the international conference 'Parallelism in Architecture, Environment and Computing Techniques' (PACT), organised by UEL and IEREK, and led by Gilles Retsin and Prof Hassan Abdalla. 12-14 September 2016, London.
  • Invited Chair for the Conscious Cities conference, organised by the Museum of Architecture and ARUP, 1 March 2016, London.
  • Member of the Scientific Committee, at the 'Echo-Polis 2013' international Conference: 'Sounds, noise and music for re-thinking sustainable city and econeighbourhood,' organized by the SD MED network, hosted in Athens, 30 September - 2 October 2013. 
  • Invited juror for the International Architectural Workshops of 'ArchitectScripta'/ X-Atelier: 'Omni[program]chromatic', 'Sweet X-Architecture,' 'Ornamentism,' in 2011-2017.  X Atelier, directors: Nefeli Chatzimina - Lecturer in USC - and Erick Carcamo - Lecturer in UPENN and Yale.
  • Guest speaker and tutor: Invited by artist Eliza Soroga (recipient of the International Arte Laguna Prize) to teach with her in the international workshop: 'City as landscape body as subject: Athens'. 2019. The visual outputs of this workshop were exhibited in the 9th Athens Videodance Festival. 
  • Led the Design workshop 'Displayz,' in the School of Interior Architecture of the University of West Attica, delivered in collaboration with colleagues Dr Harald Trapp (UEL) and Angelos Psilopoulos (Univ. of West Attica). April 2017.
  • Invited guest lecturer/speaker in the Design Workshop of the New Design University, Austria, led by academics Christine Schwaiger and Kriso Leinfellner, held in London, October 2016. The workshop was attended by postgraduate students of the New Design University, who were visiting London as part of their research and design project.

PUBLICATIONS

Books

  • Karandinou, A. (Ed.) (2019), Data, Architecture and the Experience of Place, Routledge – Taylor & Francis. 
  • Karandinou, A. (2013), No Matter: Theories and practices of the ephemeral in architecture, Ashgate/Routledge - Taylor & Francis. 
  • Al-Attili, A., Karandinou, A., Daley, B. (Eds.), (2016), Parametricism VS Materialism, SOAS - ASCAAD - Imperial House Publishers, London, UK 
  • Karandinou, A., C. Actypi, S. Giamarelos. (Eds.) (2008), Athens by Sound, Athens: Futura. [ISBN 9789606654801] 

All other publications

  •  
  • McVeigh, J. & Karandinou, A., (2024) “‘Queering’ Soho: Contesting the borders of normative space in the neoliberal city”, field 9(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.62471/field.119
  • Karandinou, A. (Ed.), (2023) 'Repurposing Places for Social and Environmental Resilience', Counterarchitecture, London.
  • Karandinou, A. (2022) 'The Storm' Community Oriented Real-Life Design Project; Revisiting the Curriculum. AMPs Conference Paper.
  • Karandinou, A. (2019), 'The Storm' collaborative project: an interactive, stage set design for the Literacy Pirates. UEL (Report)
  • Karandinou, A., Turner, L. (2018), Architecture and Neuroscience; what can the EEG recording of brain activity reveal about a walk through everyday spaces? In: International Journal of Parallel, Emergent and Distributed Systems, Taylor & Francis. ISSN: 1744-5760 (Print) 1744-5779 (Online) DOI:10.1080/17445760.2017.1390089 (Cited by 20 as shown in Google Scholar) 
  • Karandinou, A. (Ed.) (2017), Data and Senses; architecture, neuroscience and the digital worlds; Proceedings. UEL, London, April 2017 [ISBN 978-0-9935963-2-2]
  • Karandinou, A., Turner, L. (2017), Mind-Mapping a Way-Finding Process; the Use of Portable EEG Brain Mapping in the Analysis of the Experience of Everyday Spaces. In: Alberto T. Estevez (Ed.), Biodigital Architecture, UIC, Barcelona.
  • Karandinou, A. (2014), Opening up Architectural Dichotomies beyond sensing spaces, LOBBY,1;119.
  • Karandinou, A. (2013), No Matter: Theories and practices of the ephemeral in architecture, Ashgate. [ISBN 978-1-4094-6628-4]
  • Karandinou, A. (2012), Peer-assessment as a process for enhancing critical thinking and learning in design disciplines, Transactions Journal, CEBE, Vol.9:1
  • Karandinou, A., et al. (2012), Athens by Sound, In 'On Show: Temporary Design Fairs, Events and Exhibitions', Ginko Press.
  • Karandinou, A. (2012), 360-Degrees: Hybrid environments as a research tool, 'Virtual Worlds Conference', The University of Edinburgh, May 2012.
  • Karandinou, A. (2011), Beyond the binary, EAAE-ENHSA 'Rethinking the Human in Technology-Driven Architecture', CMA, Chania.
  • Karandinou, A. (2011), Augmented Places: Educational Environments and the Sense of 'Play', INTED 2011, Valencia
  • Karandinou, A., Lympouridis, V. (2009), Hybrid meeting places; from a real-scale 'chat-room' to an augmented public bus stop, in Voyatzaki, M.(Ed.) (2010), The Design and Fabrication of Innovative forms in a continuum. CAM.
  • Karandinou, A., et.al. (2009), Athens by Sound and Sound mappings, Metalocus (024). Karandinou, A., et.al. (2009), Athens Sound Mapping, Frame (67)
  • Karandinou, A. (Ed.) (2009), Transilient Boundaries, Edinburgh Architecture Research (EAR 32).
  • Karandinou, A., Parker, M. (2009), Sonic Fields, Field-Work 6th AHRA Conference, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh College of Art.
  • Karandinou, A., Koutsoumpos, L., Coyne, R. (2008), Hybrid studio matters: Ethnomethodological documentary of a tutorial, Proceedings; Critical Digital International Conference, Harvard University.
  • Karandinou, A., et.al. (2008), 'Athens by Sound', in Out There; Architecture Beyond Building, Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia, Marsilio.
  • Karandinou, A., et.al. (Ed.) (2008), Athens by Sound, Athens: Futura.
  • Karandinou, A., Koutsoumpos, L. (2008), Performing Mimetic Mapping, Footprint Journal (02).
  • Karandinou, A. (2007), Invisible Techtonics, Proceedings of the Tectonics Making Meaning Conference, TU Eindhoven
  • Karandinou, A., Al-Attili, A. (2007), Conscious Interaction with immaterial space: Augmented reality of everyday life, in Embodying Virtual Architecture ASCAAD, Alexandria
  • Karandinou, A. (2006), Light Bridges, Luis Fernandez-Galiano(Ed.), Light of Tomorrow, Arquitectura Viva.
  •  

Publications

The last four years of publications can be viewed below. 

Full publications list

Visit the research repository to view a full list of publications

Research repository